From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #3 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Saturday, January 4 2003 Volume 12 : Number 003 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Everybody Weng Chiang Tonight ["Rex.Broome" ] RE: Everybody Weng Chiang Tonight ["Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" ] I and I ["ross taylor" ] Re: best & worst? creepy link? neither is the answer! [grutness@surf4nix.] Re: best & worst? creepy link? neither is the answer! [Tom Clark ] Re: To slant or to wank, neither is the answer. [Sabina Carlson Subject: Everybody Weng Chiang Tonight Drew: >>And Jackson has a head start because he has human actors >>playing the character, where Tolkien has to do it all in your head. Oooh, I have a pretty sizeable philosophical disagreement with that, Tolkien and Jackson aside. Actors bring a lot of baggage with them, from their physical appearance to their previous roles to "I used to know a guy named Elijah" etc... on the page the characters can be absolutely whatever. That's why we all have those moments of cognitive disonnance when we hear about really bad casting of literary properties, from whence spring endless internet protest petitions or a complete desire not to see the film of one's favorite book, etc. ________ James: >>for some unknown reason this reminded me about a comment I recall about >>how you can tell where a battleship comes from (other than the letters before >>its name). Just watched one of the DVD's I got my wife for Christmas last night, "Run Silent Run Deep". In it they always referred to the Japanese destroyer Ashakazi (sp.? sounds more like European Jews than Japanese boat) as "he" and "him" instead of using the tradtional female adjectives... anyone know why? The class or nationality of the ship? >>apparently as of yesterday that's Sir Ridley Scott. Is that an omen? Is that why one of our cable channels played both Alien and Blade Runner two days ago? We though that was cool... it made it "Ridley Day". __________ Jefff: >>But are you saying that some source listed Alex Chilton as >>the 20th? Hadn't seen that one... Yeah, same one as listed Patti Smith, now that I think of it. Chilton is almost definitely the 28th (listed by AMG and the official Box Tops site). _______ MEKWAPH (henceforth McWaph): >>Which were written before Star Wars showed how the support droids were supposed to act. The support droids are lifted from The Hidden Fortress... so is Jackson's Sam therefore Tolkien as invented by Kurosawasa by way of Lucas? There's some hemispheric whiplash for ya! ____________ Kay: >>What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- play a >>version of your Evil-Self? I look moderately evil anyway (an eyebrow issue now accentuated by goatee) so I dunno exactly how to approach this. One could hope for Kyle Maclachlan in scenery-chewing mode (which seems to be most of the time these days), or Dave Foley in the absurdist comedy version. Eeeeeeevil! - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 10:53:43 -0800 From: "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" Subject: micks jones This is just too funny. =20 http://www.pagesix.com/pagesix/27832.htm =20 =20 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 11:03:20 -0800 From: "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" Subject: RE: Everybody Weng Chiang Tonight Rex said: > The support droids are lifted from The Hidden Fortress... so is Jackson's > Sam therefore Tolkien as invented by Kurosawasa by way of Lucas? There's > some hemispheric whiplash for ya! Let's not forget Sancho Panza! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 11:24:26 -0800 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Talons of Wang Chung (Future Squid Mix) Vaguely feggish things over the past few days: So did anyone see the thing on Animal Planet called "The Future Is Wild"? It was a knockoff of "Walking w/Dinosaurs" except it posited some future where humans abandon Earth (oddly without messing it up nearly as much as we already have) and all these made-up evolved computer generated beasties are roaming around two billion years in the future. Anyways, it was profoundly retarded for a myriad of reasons... coulda been much better without the faux-nature-show narration and "visiting space probe" framework. But the feggy thing was that it ended with these semi-intelligent tree-dwelling jungle squids attacking this giant elephant-like land-squid to protect their young. Lame but intriguing. If only it had shown them inventing polyethelene bags in which to eat dough. Or at least advancing to the Victorian Era. But seriously, I know cephalopods are hella smart, but didn't they have plenty of opportunities to come ashore ages ago if they wanted to? They seem to have been happy to leave the land to the lowly univalve molluscs, who in and of themselves weren't a patch on the arthropods. Oh, well. ________ On a semi-related note I took my older daughter to the Long Beach Aquarium yesterday, and man, did she have a good time. She touched a shark. How cool is that at not even two years old? A perfect outing for a mutual-Pisces-father-and-daughter pair. I'm still buzzed from all the fun we had. Miranda actually looked at the clownfish and anemone tank and exclaimed "Dadddeeee!" (the clownfish/anemone pairing is a kind of personal totem for me). And she grooved on jellyfish. Wish I coulda seen her dreams last night. She has also now irrevocably named Ridley "Ny". Megan thinks it's a truncation of "nice" as in "nice and gentle with the baby", but it's now definitely "Ny". Huh. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 19:55:17 +0000 From: "Maurer Rose, Inverse Nome" Subject: alphabetizing his CDs by the name of the sound engineer "the sort who, several hours after taking the drug, can usually be found sitting on the floor, grinding his teeth and alphabetizing his CDs by the name of the sound engineer." :-)Lord help me, somehow this half reminded me of us, minus, of course, the drug use. Of course. The article, on the history of writers and drug use,is at: http://newyorker.com/critics/books/?030106crbo_books Thats Ms K-hole to you, bub _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:02:28 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: micks jones At 10:53 AM 1/3/2003 -0800, Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc) wrote: >This is just too funny. > >=20 > >http://www.pagesix.com/pagesix/27832.htm I take it that the funny part isn't the NY TIMES' original mistake (running Mick Jones' 1980 picture instead of Strummer's), but the fact that the picture of Mick Jones that Page Six runs in their holier-than-thou correction is the wrong, very wrong Mick Jones -- Foreigner's. I know what's good for you all day, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 16:48:26 -0500 From: "ross taylor" Subject: I and I Kay-- >Marvin Minsky? Explicate please. >Depends how you define multiple, dosn't it? That joke involves so much OT explanation I probably shouldn't have made it. Minsky is (or was?) refered to as the foremost thinker on artificial intelligence, & he's got a bunch of ideas about how human intelligence works too. His approach to AI is to have lots of independant very simple processes which work together (& sort of compete as well) to achieve more complicated tasks. He calls these "mental agents" and in The Society of Mind he goes into lots of detail how it makes sense to see humans as constantly doing lots of parallel processing, different subroutines of thought working on different aspects of a problem at the same time. He thinks that many of these subroutines have considerable autonomy, & compete in complex ways for access to the central "will." He mostly talks about things like how a kid figures out how to make a toy car go under a toy bridge w/out knocking over the bridge, but he also relates it to larger ideas like id/ego/superego. I bet a bunch of other people here can explain this better. Here's more info: http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/ It's fun because it at least resonates w/ Kevin Kelley's pop-sci ideas of "hive mind." Anyway, it's a theory & I enjoy theories. - --- Gweneth P. & Sylvia P. -- Oh gawd. I have very mixed feelings about this. I like GP as an actress & SP as a poet, but feel movies about internal creative processes are pretty dodgy. There's always some over- dramatised, over-externalised "eureka" scene. I'm generally much more excited about Tom Stoppard being involved in His Dark Materials. Ross Taylor "these winds in Chicago have torn me to threads reality has always had too many heads" -- BD Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 10:58:48 +1300 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: best & worst? creepy link? neither is the answer! >Mind you, Owen Wilson can only be less wooden than David Soul. "Wildcat >... wild cat ... pow, pow" > >And he once played a character called Dignan, too. only movie I know of with a Dignan character is "Rocket Bottle" - that it? >http://www.johannas-art.com/Portraits.htm all I got was a 'not found' message >What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- play a >version of your Evil-Self? oo. Interesting question. I'd be tempted to say Alan Rickman - but although he'd probably be closest, he's still not...quite...hmm. James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= .-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= You talk to me as if from a distance =-.-=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:04:48 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: best & worst? creepy link? neither is the answer! on 1/3/03 1:58 PM, James Dignan at grutness@surf4nix.com wrote: > only movie I know of with a Dignan character is "Rocket Bottle" - that it? Correct, except that's either "Rocket, Bottle" or the more familiar title of "Bottle Rocket" - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:32:04 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: To slant or to wank, neither is the answer. on 1/3/03 8:17 AM, Maurer Rose, Inverse Nome at theyarenotlong@hotmail.com wrote: > What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- play a > version of your Evil-Self? Robyn Hitchcock. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 17:30:22 -0800 (PST) From: drew Subject: paltrow some > From: "Maurer Rose, Inverse Nome" > [Paltrow] > I have only seen her in "Emma," "Shakespeare in Love," "The Royall > Tannenbaums," and "Possession." And based on them, I'd say she's very good, > far, far better than alot of the cutie-pies vying for center stage. She also > appears to have first class taste in material. I wish she would feel secure > enough in her talent to be less of a media slattern, but not feeling secure > enough in your own talent and needing to be a media slattern seems to be an > epedemic. Once again I have to agree wholeheartedly with you. When I hear something like "Gwyneth Paltrow is going to play Sylvia Plath" I instantly reach for my sick bag, but if I stop and think about it I have to admit that she is really appealing and serious and just plain _good_ on screen. I hated Shakespeare In Love and I didn't see Possession, but her Emma and her Tenenbaum were great, and believe it or not I quite liked her in Shallow Hal as well; she really rose above some problematic material. She's not really my type, physically (blonde and rail-thin, as opposed to dark and curvy), so I don't have that obstacle to respecting her as an actress, though I do concede she's aesthetically pleasing and just a nice screen presence (as opposed to, say, Charlize Theron, who is burningly sexy but a terrible actress and a weirdly uncomfortable screen presence). > From: "Michael E. Kupietz, wearing a pointy hat" > > At 2:08 AM -0800 12/31/02, those funny voices I hear when no one else is > around called themselves "drew" and whispered: > >> I'd > >> like to point out that you seem to have a reverence for the text, yet if > >>you > >> notice, Sam is not a nuanced character in the books. I whispered no such thing. This was someone else. > Which were written before Star Wars showed how the support droids were > supposed to act. I'm sorry, I don't hold with the Frodo:Luke::Sam:Threepio analogy at all. > >> I really liked the song "Dance Hall Days". > > > >*awkward silence > > C'mon... "Weng-Chiang". Get it? Oh, man, I'd already forgotten that discussion. Sorry! > From: "ross taylor" > > Of all the fight scenes, my fav was w/ the giant-wolf thingies (I cannot remember all those > made-up names). "Wargs." I didn't remember that scene from the book, either...maybe it was there and I forgot it. > Still, it was interesting to compare to the daemons in His Dark > Materials I tried to start that the other day. The first few pages seemed so trite and unpromising, so I decided to finish Gormenghast before I try again. If I hadn't bought the first book I might never return to it. I take it it gets better? > From: "Maurer Rose, Inverse Nome" > > What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- play a > version of your Evil-Self? Arguably in my case you would need someone to play my Good-Self. ;) I have no idea who I would choose for either; my self-perception is not objective enough. - -- drew at stormgreen dot com http://www.stormgreen.com/~drew/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 21:16:00 -0500 From: Sabina Carlson Subject: Re: To slant or to wank, neither is the answer. kay: > What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- play a > version of your Evil-Self? Thuy An Luu. she doesn't look like me (though i wish she did!) and wasn't necessarily evil in "diva" (she shoplifted! *gasp*) but i bet she could if she wanted to ;-). hehe... good question, kay peace, love, unity, and evil actors andd actresses, sabina sheena ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 20:39:50 -0500 From: Fric Chaud Subject: Re: To slant or to wank, neither is the answer. On 3 Jan 2003 at 16:17, Maurer Rose, Inverse Nome wrote: > What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- > play a version of your Evil-Self? Girard Depardieu, well sure! Perhaps a problem that I am now black, and also pot and kettle, and Girard is blonde. - -- Beau gosse ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 02:52:12 -0800 From: "Michael E. Kupietz, wearing a pointy hat" Subject: Re: To slant or to wank, neither is the answer. At 4:17 PM +0000 1/3/03, those funny voices I hear when no one else is around called themselves "Maurer Rose, Inverse Nome" and whispered: >What actor or actress could play the same role for all you Fegs -- play a >version of your Evil-Self? Gabe Kaplan. At 10:53 AM -0800 1/3/03, those funny voices I hear when no one else is around called themselves "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" and whispered: >This is just too funny. >http://www.pagesix.com/pagesix/27832.htm I don't want to get into an O/T link-posting free for all, but this one is too funny not to share... >"Yngwie Malmstein threatened to kill a fellow passenger on a flight to >Tokyo, Japan after the woman poured a glassful of water on the guitarist. >The passenger, who had no prior contact with Yngwie, allegedly overheard >Malmsteen making derogatory comments about homosexuals and decided to show >her disapproval by emptying the contents of her glass on the hefty axeman. >A >member of Yngwie's touring entourage, who was traveling with Malmsteen at >the time, had a tape recorder running and managed to catch Yngwie's >reaction >on tape immediately after the guitarist was 'assaulted' by the offended >passenger." > >Recording of the incident: >http://www.blabbermouth.net/yngwie_tokyo_flight.mp3 "You have unleashed the fury! You have unleashed the fury!" I don't know if this is funny or depressing. At 5:30 PM -0800 1/3/03, those funny voices I hear when no one else is around called themselves "drew" and whispered: >> At 2:08 AM -0800 12/31/02, those funny voices I hear when no one else is >> around called themselves "drew" and whispered: >> >> I'd >> >> like to point out that you seem to have a reverence for the text, yet >>if >> >>you >> >> notice, Sam is not a nuanced character in the books. > >I whispered no such thing. This was someone else. You're right, looks like I missed the attribution in a nested quote. >> Which were written before Star Wars showed how the support droids were >> supposed to act. > >I'm sorry, I don't hold with the Frodo:Luke::Sam:Threepio analogy >at all. :-P - pththththththt! >> >> I really liked the song "Dance Hall Days". >> > >> >*awkward silence >> >> C'mon... "Weng-Chiang". Get it? > >Oh, man, I'd already forgotten that discussion. Sorry! It's OK, I think "awkward silence" was the correct answer in any case. - -- ======== We need love, expression, and truth. We must not allow ourselves to believe that we can fill the round hole of our spirit with the square peg of objective rationale. - Paul Eppinger At non effugies meos iambos - Gaius Valerius Catallus ("...but you won't get away from my poems.") "Moderation in all things, except Wild Turkey." - Evel Knievel ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #3 ******************************